Big in Ecuador, and now getting noticed here

Music Music Music

Big in Ecuador, and now getting noticed here By Patrick Gerard Healy
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

     When Roberto Cachimuel studied violin at Somerville High School, he wasn't like the other students.
     "He moved around while he was playing, and we had to try to teach him to sit still," says teacher Rita Ranucci, who instructed Roberto over a decade ago.
    Cachimuel never stopped moving, and that could be part of the reason that the musical group he started with his siblings is catching on across the world. Yarina, a combo that can include anywhere from three to nine of his family as members, won the "Best World Music" award for their album "Nawi" last month at the Native American Music Awards.
     Their story is not exactly one of overnight success. Yarina has been playing for over 20 years, beginning in the villages of the northern mountain region of Ecuador when Roberto was 9. He is now 30.
    With his father's encouragement, Roberto and his brothers Rimay and Manuel and sisters Ana Lucia and Kaya began under the name Yawar Wauky, which means Blood Brothers in their native language of Kichwa. Roberto started out playing charango, an instrument with 10 nylon strings that is shaped like a ukulele and is traditionally made of an armadillo's shell.
     More siblings got involved as they grew old enough to learn, loosely, how to play instruments. Roberto says since they were all self-taught, the music was relatively simple. As they have mastered their instruments, the simplicity is something they held onto.
    "You hear music on the radio or TV and sometimes you hear simple tones and a simple beat that become a hit, and that's something we can do very easily," says Roberto.
    The group began playing traditional music but has always allowed aspects of other music to drift into their original compositions.
     "The range of styles is a lot bigger than most people think, because we can play traditional music, and we play some songs my father composed 20 years ago that back then we recorded with limited knowledge of music, and nowadays we look back at those songs and have brought a new style to them."
     At a recent rehearsal at their home on Boston Street in Somerville, the styles ranged from traditional songs of the Andes to those with a reggae lilt and others feeling more like punk rock.
     Roberto moved to Somerville in 1991, and members of his family soon followed. Several Cachimuels now share the house in the Prospect Hill area. The group performs at local schools, including East Somerville Community School, which Roberto's son, Yuyari, attends.
     Yarina's performances are all about movement. Musicians, dressed in white, switch instruments from one song to the next. Masked male dancers in costumes of Aya Uma, the spirits of duality, stomp on the stage. Female dancers come out clad in primary colors, long skirts twirling. But the most exciting movement to watch can come from the audience, which often transforms into a bouncing circle rising and falling to the rhythm.

     As they play, the brothers, with identical-length ponytails and similar embroidered shirts, smile at one another and stomp in unison.
     The music is very much steeped in tradition; the name Yarina means "remembrance" in Kichwa.
    "Almost 100 percent of what we do is based on our background, and we are an unusual group because today's generations unfortunately are losing some of their traditions," says Roberto. "To each other we only speak Kichwa, and a lot of the songs we write are in Kichwa. . . . We don't feel the need to write our music in Spanish or English because if people really like the music, they're going to sing along to it. We put lyrics in the book so people can learn to sing along, even in a different language."
     The group's attachment to their heritage has made them a hit with the indigenous people of Ecuador, but they still have not conquered some of its bigger cities.
     "What we're trying to do is push those boundaries and make our music become mainstream," Roberto says.
     When asked about all that moving around his teachers remember during his violin lessons at Somerville High, Roberto is unapologetic.
    "Unfortunately a lot of kids back then, when we were taking class, were just sitting there because some kids feel obligated to do it," he says. "I guess I was perhaps the weird one because I was moving a lot. My performance is always moving and feeling the music."

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